


The Hoodies That Show Our Love

by Monstrous_Moonshine



Series: Good Things Happen bingo [1]
Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Boys In Love, Established Relationship, Hoodies, M/M, Soft Boys, Yellow Hoodie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:35:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29467356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Monstrous_Moonshine/pseuds/Monstrous_Moonshine
Summary: Good things happen bingo prompt: HoodiesWritten for a prompt request from @twinkleballa on tumblr.  I hope you like it!TK loves his yellow hoodies, Carlos loves TK in that hoodie too.  So the 126 crew get them a special present.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Series: Good Things Happen bingo [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2164440
Comments: 14
Kudos: 184





	The Hoodies That Show Our Love

“Hey, TK!” Judd shouts as TK is leaving the station, ready for the 2 days off shift he’s finally reached, time to spend with Carlos. He’s impatient, he knows, it’s been too long since he was in the same room as his boyfriend - no, he corrects himself mentally, his fiancée - and they’ve got some celebrating to do. After all, ever since Carlos proposed to him last week they haven’t had the same time off. These 2 days are their first chance to be alone together since getting engaged and he can’t wait.

But he also can’t ignore Judd, so he stops turns and waits, bouncing on the soles of his feet so he’s ready to go the minute he can. Judd’s grin says he’s noticed, as he claps TK on the shoulder. “It won’t take long,” he says, “so you can get home to your boy quickly. But I just wanted to check you were still ok for tomorrow?”

TK tilts his head to one side because he doesn’t want to tell Judd’s happy face that he has no idea what he’s going on about. “Um…” he starts but he’s interrupted by Marjan shouting from the top of the stairs.

“Ryder, I told you he wouldn’t be able to think past his husband to be and what they’re getting up to tonight. His brain is just mush! I knew he’d forget!”

TK’s mouth falls open as he looks between Judd and Marjan, Mateo halfway up the stairs giving him the injured puppy dog eyed look and Paul, hanging by the coffee machine and watching everything with a smile on his face. Even his dad is hanging over the railings, a fond but almost exasperated look on his face. And ok, TK has been thinking of Carlos a lot, but who wouldn’t? Even at the best of times, his boyfriend - fiancée - is amazing but now, now he’s declared his intention to be with TK forever, how can he not be on his mind?

Judd has a half exasperated, half fond look on his face when he drags his eyes back to him, like he knows exactly what’s going through TK’s brain. “I know,” he says, “I was like it when Grace and I got engaged. He’s the only thing you want to think about. But everyone here wants to celebrate with you too. You’re our brother, TK, and Carlos, he’s our friend too and he makes you so happy.”

TK melts at the words, but he’s still fixed on whatever it is he’s forgotten. “What’s tomorrow?” he asks.

“Your engagement party, at ours,” Judd grins at him again. “Half seven. Be there on time or Grace will string you from the rafters. I’m not responsible for her when she’s planned your party, you know.”

“What?” TK is sure he’d have remembered agreeing to an engagement party, instead of having the copious amounts of sex he’s been imagining with his husband to be. “Party?”

“See,” Marjan scoffs, flicking his forehead as she saunters past. “He forgets everything except his police officer fiancée. Forget his head if it wasn’t screwed on so tightly.”

“No, I remembered,” TK lies, trying to hide the grimace because now he has no choice but go and that means another night where he can’t be wrapped around Carlos. “We’ll be there, Judd, of course.”

Telling Carlos goes better than he expects. When he gets home, Carlos is there already, dressed in a blue shirt and trouser combination that has TK’s mouth dry before he even sees the table laid out for them. He’s cooked, put candles and flowers on the table and it’s so romantic and lovely. They sit and eat and hold hands over the table whilst they’re trying to eat and giggle at how silly they’re being because they can’t bear to let go of each other. Carlos is wearing the ring he bought, and his eyes light up when TK pulls his out and off from the chain he wears around his neck whilst he’s on shift and kisses the metal band almost reverently when TK slides it back onto his finger, where it belongs. 

It’s only when they’ve tidied up, knocking into each other like giddy teenagers as they wash up and dry and put away dishes and stealing kisses whenever they can that TK mentions the party to Carlos. They’ve fallen into the couch in a heap, all legs and arms tangled together and kissing each other senseless when he remembers he has to tell Carlos about their change of plans for tomorrow.

He plays with Carlos’ fingers, letting the light shine off the narrow silver engagement band he’s wearing. “So, tomorrow,” he says slowly. “Our engagement party.”

“What engagement party?” Carlos asks and TK is relieved that he’s not the only one that didn’t know.

He explains everything, the way he’d been ambushed by Judd as he left shift, the comments the others had made, the way they can’t get out of going and by the time he’s finished, Carlos is laughing, fond and gentle as he tries to kiss TK and fails dismally because he can’t stop laughing.

“So you agreed to an engagement party you knew nothing about but didn’t want to offend your family by saying that,” he sums it up and TK scowls a little at the summary.

“Yeah, I guess,” he admits and Carlos slides a finger under his chin and raises his head so he can look straight into his eyes, beautiful brown meeting green with a look of pure adoration that still takes TK’s breath away.

“We still get to spend tonight and most of tomorrow in bed,” he shrugs. “And we have the rest of our lives to spend together too. Let them be happy by throwing you a party. It’s sweet.”

TK moans and pulls Carlos on top of him and kisses him like he deserves to be kissed and the party gets forgotten for a long time.

TK knocks on the Ryder’s front door a little nervously. Carlos is beside him, hand clasping his, support bleeding from every single pore of his body. TK doesn’t know why he’s nervous, because these people are his family, but he is. He guesses it’s because this is so important to him, the merging of Carlos, the love of his life, with his family, his crew.

Grace opens the door with a lovely smile, welcoming them in and ushering them into the backyard where everyone else already is. The EMT crew are there too, as well as some of the other shifts of the 126 who TK knows well enough, and his parents, sitting together on one of the double sofas. Judd is cooking at the barbecue and waves his tongs at them with a cheery grin as Grace sits them down at the table, opposite the smug faces of the rest of his team. TK knows they’ve got something planned, there’s no way any of them look that innocent in normal times. But they say nothing, just get him and Carlos a drink each and distract them by talking about how the proposal went and the plans they’ve already made for the wedding.

It’s only when the food is ready that Judd bangs on the top of the barbecue, demanding silence and then raises his glass of wine to where TK and Carlos are sitting. “I just want to say a few words,” he says, voice carrying over the suddenly silent yard, “because TK is like my little brother and I am so happy that he’s found someone that loves him and cares for him the way Carlos does. I mean, I could have done without finding them in the shower and the bunk and the back of the fire truck when they first starting dating…”

“Hey!” TK hears his dad say from the opposite side of the garden and he hides his suddenly red hot cheeks in Carlos’ broad shoulders because although he and his dad are pretty open about sex, it’s one thing thinking about it and anything thing hearing about it in front of all of his colleagues. And the fire truck story was definitely one his dad had no knowledge of until this moment.

“Don’t worry, boss,” Judd calls over, “I made TK scrub every single inch of that fire truck afterwards. Got rid of all the…”

“Judd!” Grace interupts, with a frown on her face and Judd blinks, seems to come back to what he was saying before.

“Right, right, sorry. It was clear right from the start that TK and Carlos were meant to be together, especially when they couldn’t keep their eyes or hands off each other at jobs. Do you remember that fire in the mall when….”

“Judd!” this time it’s all of the crew of the 126 who shout it out, because Owen definitely does not know what happened at that call and not one of them want him finding out.

“Anyway, I just wanted to say congratulations! And Carlos, if you do anything to my boy, I know where you live and work. Just saying,” Judd finishes with a flourish of his tongs and TK turns rather startled eyes on a flustered Grace.

“Serves me right for allowing him to speak,” she mumbles, but she brightens up as she gazes at them both. “What he meant to say was we are so happy for you both. It’s clear you love each other so much and we want you to have this for the rest of your lives.”

“Plus, can I be your best man?” Paul interjects and TK laughs, happy and content with the man he loves at his side and his family opposite him.

“What about me?” Mateo says but then he grins at Carlos. “It’s ok, I’ll be Carlos’ best man. I’m his favourite anyway.”

Marjan hits him around the head as she pulls a wrapped package out from under the table. “We got you these,” she says, handing it over to them. “You have to wear them and then go and help Judd give out the food to everybody here. If we have to put up with your cuteness and adorableness and downright sickeningly lovingness then it’s only fair that everyone else here suffers too.”

TK takes the package, prodding it carefully. It’s soft and yields under his hands and he can’t work out what’s in it. He holds it out to Carlos, who releases his hand to take it and squish it too. “You want to do it together,” he asks and TK ignores the noises Marjan and Paul are making behind his back as he gives Carlos heart eyes and covers his hand on the wrapping paper. He knows he’s soppy, but this is Carlos and he can’t find it in himself to mind.

They unwrap the present and shake out the contents to find two hoodies, matching in yellow. They’re lovely and soft and TK is surprised at the normality of them, until Carlos, who has shaken one of them out, starts laughing and choking.

When TK turns to him, he holds the hoodie out, at arms length and TK gets why his crew have given them the present.

Because on the front of the hoodie, in large, glorious technicolour, is a photo he remembers them taking at the station one day early in their relationship. He’d never told Carlos the photo had been taken, but he knew it had because he’d found copies of it taped all over the station the day after, in an attempt to tease him. He’d taken them all down and hidden them in his locker because he couldn’t bear to throw them away but he’d never mentioned it to Carlos because he knew he’d be embarrassed.

It’s of the two of them, on the couch in the station in the middle of the night, when they thought they were alone. TK had snuck Carlos in, they’d been in that honeymoon period of their relationship where they couldn’t keep their hands off each other - although to be honest, that had never really changed. But in the photo, TK is on Carlos’ lap, they’ve obviously just broken apart from kissing each other intensely, Carlos’ hands are on TK’s back and up towards the top of his spine, in the short hair at the nape of his neck. TK’s hands are on Carlos’ face, tilting his head upwards as they look at each other. But it’s the looks on their faces that meant TK hadn’t been able to throw the photos away. Carlos is looking up at him like he hung every single star in the sky, like he’s the centre of his universe. And TK is looking at Carlos like he can’t quite believe he’s there, like he’s the only person he sees in the world. It was that photo that showed TK that Carlos loved him deeply, that showed that he loved Carlos just as deeply even if he’d been too scared to admit it before. It’s his favourite photo of them, frozen in such an intimate and emotional moment that speaks volumes about the love they shared right from the start.

And he loves the photo, but it’s one thing having copies still everywhere at work even if they’re hidden because he’s soppy and can’t bring himself to dispose of them, and another having it plastered full size and in bright colour over the front of a yellow hoodie.

Carlos gulps once as he sees the matching photo on the second hoodie, and his eyes are so soft and gentle as he raises them to TK’s, like he wants to be wearing a reminder of their love on his chest no matter how embarrassing it is. But then he starts laughing fully and turns the hoodie he’s holding around to show the lettering the little sods have added onto it and TK looks at the one he’s holding and laughs too.

On the back they’ve got their names printed, Mr and Mr Reyes-Strand to be, and a list of places that TK recognises as all the locations the 126 crew have caught them in compromising positions in. It’s ridiculous and horrifying and sweet at the same time.

“Get them on,” Marjan cackles in joy and TK feels warm all over when Carlos leans in and kisses him lightly on the corner of his mouth.

“With pleasure,” he says. “Because then everyone will know he’s mine and I’m his,” and he shrugs the hoodie on over his shirt, smoothing out the photo with hands that slightly tremble.

TK repeats the action and it feels like home, safety, everything he associates with Carlos immediately and he finds he doesn’t mind the embarrassment so much after all. Even when his dad turns him around and reads the list on the back with pursed lips. “Care to tell me what these all are?” he asks but TK is watching Carlos from across the yard as he laughs at something Judd has said and he shrugs, smiling fondly as Carlos catches his eye and beams, bright even from the distance, the love clearly shining on his face and his mum sighs, tears in her eyes.

TK turns back to his dad, his joy reflected in the eyes opposite him. When he speaks it’s simple and true in the sincerity he offers.

“It’s all the places I realised how much in love I was with my husband to be.”


End file.
